Former jockey Craig Carmody, who enjoyed significant wins at Randwick during his riding career, has successfully applied his skills as a trainer to guide the promising sprinter Sir Les to an important victory at the track.
Carmody is widely recognised for his role as the regular rider of the multiple Group 1 winner Intergaze, with whom he famously thwarted Octagonal’s farewell performance in the 1997 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick. He continues to ride his own track work, and Sir Les has been his latest focus.
After securing wins in his first two provincial starts, the three-year-old proved to be his own undoing at Rosehill in May, becoming too keen and finishing as the favourite. This led Carmody to reassess his training strategy.
Carmody decided to ease the horse’s workload and concentrate on teaching him to harness his natural speed. The results of this approach were clear on Saturday, as Sir Les ($4.40) achieved an emphatic 3-1/4 length triumph over Benevac ($2.40 favourite) in the Sydney Roosters Partners Handicap (1100m).
“He’s a bit aggressive, so I’ve spent a lot of time on his slower work,” Carmody stated. “When he’d try to get ahead of me, I’d get him back to virtually a trot and slow canter, and eventually he would give to me.”
“Repetition, day after day, got it through his head that you don’t have to run through the bridle.”
Following a two-decade tenure as a jockey, Carmody was granted a trainer’s licence in 2005 and has since experienced stakes race success with runners like Single and Everage.
Sir Les’s dam is Everage, and the colt’s name is a tribute to the celebrated characters Sir Les Patterson and Dame Edna Everage, creations of the renowned comedian Barry Humphries.
Carmody expressed his satisfaction with Sir Les’s comeback performance, drawing a humorous parallel to his former mount, Intergaze.
“It was great to see. Like Intergaze,” he quipped. “I’m being very kind to Sir Les. He is nothing like Intergaze yet. But he gives me a great turn of foot, so that’s something to work on.”
Plans are in place to spell Sir Les, with the aim of targeting sprint races during the summer and early autumn periods.
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